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Desert Safe Haven, Deja Dortch

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The purpose of this thesis is to inform on the materials, technologies, spaces and structure needed to architecturally and sustainably achieve human comfort and create a mother nature-proof safe haven in the becoming harsh climate of the USA. All the while implementing minimum HVAC, using primarily passive and active systems towards a net zero home. Studies have shown there is a real threat with the rate in which the climate is changing. Temperatures are rising worldwide which is causing droughts, more frequent fires, glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise, more severe hurricanes and storms, etc. Sustainability is a way …

The Dwelling And The Shed: Redefining The Homestead, Ryan Mattox

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The homestead is the frontier of exploration. It is the place that shows people can take care of themselves through self-sufficient means. This place also looks at making a more sustainable population. That is partly due to the individual needing to take care of the environment around themselves so that the environment can provide for them.

My thesis project will look to create a technological and sustainable residential module that can be replicated and modified to create community based on self-sufficiency by means of sustainability. To achieve this goal, my thesis will look at combining the architectural elements of the …

Modular Adaptivity : The Plug-In Apartment, Bryce Stegmayer

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Within current architecture, many buildings are seemingly just copies of an original design that hasn’t changed in the slightest in ages. It will be placed on a site and left there to fulfill its single purpose. When this purpose is done, the building will become vacant and will be an everlasting mark of how we don’t think ahead. I’ve come to know these buildings as “one and done” architecture. They are a contradiction to the concept of sustainability and lack any foresight for their future impact. This thesis is an approach to make a change to this previous way of …

Empowering Communities Through Food Entrepreneurship And Creative Placemaking, Bailey Kijek

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The City of Clarkston is one of Atlanta’s oldest and most diverse communities. The city is currently in need of tactical placemaking strategies to create quality public spaces that can serve and unite the members of the community. This thesis seeks to identify the needs of the city using a comprehensive site analysis and apply that knowledge to determine a program that is best suited for the community. To create an impactful design, applicable placemaking procedures will be identified through literature review and case study analyses. The data collected will inform a design procedural that will yield an outcome that …

Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water, And Kinship

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Building Relationships With Our Island Home: Three Stories From Kindergarten In HawaiʻI, Donna Reid-Hayes

Occasional Paper Series

As early childhood educators, we seek to create authentic and meaningful experiences for the children we learn alongside. We must remember that at its core, “education, in its highest form, liberates human potential through transformational teaching and learning experiences” (Meyer, Maeshiro, & Sumida, 2018, p. 17). As a Native Hawaiian early childhood educator in Hawaiʻi, I feel compelled to nurture the children’s emerging sense of place and self to empower them with a strong sense of connection and identity. Although not all the children in my care are Native Hawaiian by blood, they are being raised within a place and …

Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water, And Kinship, Anna Lees, Megan Bang

Occasional Paper Series

Indigenous communities, across lands and waters, engage in and build complex knowledge systems emergent from particular values and ways of perceiving and being in the world (Cajete, 1994; Deloria & Wildcat, 2001). Indigenous knowledge systems, values, and ways of being are understood and enacted within socio-ecological systems grounded in reciprocal kin relations. Meaning: for Indigenous peoples, teaching, learning, living, and being in relation with human and more-than-human beings is central to our knowledge systems. In Issue #49 of the Bank Street Occasional Papers, Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water and Kinship, we bring together Indigenous educators and researchers to demonstrate how Indigenous …

Learning From Goa Pindul: Community Empowerment Through Sustainable Tourism Villages In Indonesia, Yudan Hermawan, Sujarwo Sujarwo, Yoyon Suryono

The Qualitative Report

This study aims to reveal the success of community empowerment based on sustainable tourism in Goa Pindul, Indonesia. This study adopted the interpretative phenomenological analysis approach to understand the village community empowerment process phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine (9) research participants from the Goa Pindul tourism village community. The findings of this study indicated that tourism-based community empowerment is started with awareness-raising through socialization and community service, followed by capacity building through various needs-based tourism management training and the formation of tourism awareness groups that are given to manage their potential and evaluate their development. This tourism-based community …

Towards A Diversified Agricultural Forest-Based Economy: Community Views Of Planting Sandalwood In Timor-Leste, Pyone Myat Thu, Joaquina Barreto, William Erskine, Robert Williams, Abril Soares, Valerio Ximenes, Anita Ximenes, Maria Fernandes, Octaviana P Agostinho, Tony Page

Forest and Society

With growing awareness that export revenues derived from non-renewable oil and gas resources are in decline, Timor-Leste seeks to develop a more sustainable and diversified economy. Sandalwood holds significant cultural, economic and historical importance for the Timorese people, and is representative of an internationally competitive export product. Livelihood diversification can alleviate the prevalence of poverty among smallholders in Timor-Leste. Within this context, and with a focus on forestry, we sought to determine the institutional support and smallholder interest and capacity for restoring over-exploited sandalwood. Interviewed households were acutely aware of the high value and benefits derived from sandalwood and expressed …

Maximizing The First-Year Planning Period For Scholarly Publications: Implications For Prospective Cyfar Grant Recipients, Sothy Eng, Manca Sustarsic, Nancy Ooki, Heather Greenwood, Christine Hanakawa

Journal of Extension

One of CYFAR's unique features is the built-in planning year for all grant recipients. We present our evaluation team’s approach during year 1 to establish a foundation and plan for scholarly publications during funding years 2–5. The systematic literature review provided the team with a better understanding of the culture and context of the project’s target population. Collaboration between PI/Co-PI and Evaluator served as a powerful tool to achieving this goal. Not only does this model benefit future CYFAR grant recipients’ and Extension professionals’ curriculum development and program evaluation, it can also inform recruitment efforts and community partnership development.

Food And Sovereignty: Enacting Mino-Bimaadiziwin In Gaa-Waabaabiganikaag, Zaryn Prussia

Anthropology Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Media Responsibility For Environmental Influence, Kaley Lambert

Comm-entary

No abstract provided.

Failure To Appear, Trent Harlan Bozeman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Failure To Appear is a series of photographs and collaged works that explores my layered connections between memory, unknown legacies, and knowledge of self. This body of work is not tied to any location or specific event. It is attributed to my returning to the South, returning to the institution, returning to my childhood residence and the perceived agnosia that occurred while working on a long-term project based in the Arkansas Delta.

Forgotten Spirits: Enslaved And Free Black Contributions To Bourbon And Reshaping Public Memory., Kevin Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bourbon distilling is a multi-billion-dollar industry that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to Kentucky each year. However, the industry usually overlooks or ignores the historic and ongoing contributions of African Americans. This thesis offers distilleries methods for incorporating into their public tours the often-difficult history of free and enslaved Black participation in the bourdon industry. Change requires cooperation between corporate leaders, public historians, and relevant stakeholders to forge new narratives and retrain tour guides. Based on primary and secondary research, in-person visits to distilleries, and interviews with public historians, this thesis explores free and enslaved African American contributions to …

Petro Pasts And Solar Futures: An Exploration Of Critical, Creative, And Activist Solarpunk Discourse, Emma Gilliam '23

Honor Scholar Theses

While some scholars in the subject of environmentalism may be familiar with the genre of petrofiction, the emerging genre of solarpunk is much less well-known by both academics and average readers alike. It occupies many of the same spaces as petrofiction, as a genre that grapples with modern society’s relationship to energy sources of oil and renewables. However, solarpunk differs from petrofiction in the fact that it goes beyond just a literary genre, reaching out into the worlds of art and activism simultaneously. Not only is the term ‘solarpunk’ used to refer to works of art and literature, but it …

Cultivating Community: Investigating Performances Of Community In Ecovillage Settlements, Alex Lockwood

Dissertations

This dissertation considers the subject of ecovillages, intentional ecologically-oriented sustainable communities developed in the U.S., and the different understandings of community involvement, structure, and challenges that members of these communities confront in their efforts at managing these time and labor-intensive settlements. Informed by the work of performance ethnographers and critical phenomenologists, I consider twelve interviews I conducted on-site and electronically with people living in ecovillage settlements. Taking these interviews and my own observations from on-site visits to two ecovillages as entry points, I conducted a phenomenological analysis informed by a critical phenomenological ethos of these accounts, highlighting five motifs that …

Leadership Development In Education For Sustainable Development: Evaluation Of Higher Education Students In Sustainable Development Programs, Michelle Dzurenda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) has been working decades towards reaching Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to create peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The 2030 Agenda was created as an urgent call to action, a global partnership, and a comprehensive plan to work towards the 17 SDGs. For this study, the focus is on Goal 4- quality education and the impact of leadership on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Leadership on ESD has been a more recent topic and under researched. By making advancements in leadership on ESD there will be positive …

Understanding The Support Local Movement From The Perception Of Generation Z In The Nwa Region, Daniela Medina

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The support local movement is a growing trend within Generation Z, with that comes the need to understand marketing strategies Generation Z responds to best. As Generation Z is entering the workforce and purchasing their groceries there is a need to understand how this generation perceives the term local beef. There is currently little research in regard to Generation Z and their perceptions of local beef. This study aimed to fill a gap within research by conducting a qualitative study to gather rich data to understand Generation Z’s perception of the term local beef and what marketing strategies impacted them …

One Step At A Time: Duquesne University’S Tenth Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, Brianna Marks, Maria Mlinarcik

Duquesne University Greenhouse Gas Inventories

The tenth greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory was conducted for fiscal year 2022 (FY22), which began on July 1, 2021, and ended on June 30, 2022. Assembled by graduate assistants Brianna Marks and Maria Mlinarcik at the Center for Environmental Research and Education (CERE), these findings were compared with those derived from the previous inventories to assess trends in Duquesne University’s GHG emissions. Furthermore, this inventory discusses options for reducing Duquesne’s carbon footprint in future years.

This inventory found that, compared to FY21, FY22 GHG emissions increased by 1.55%. FY21 experienced a 1.57% increase in total emissions when compared to …

Diving Into The Deep: A Mystical-Contemplative Leap Of Hope From The Pew, Lori A. Stanley

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

This paper focuses on the intersection of the mystical and the contemplative by engaging The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila with Dr. Barbara A. Holmes’ Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep: The Inner Life During Slavery. The conversation reveals their perspectives on the role contemplative practices have in building and sustaining community. Contemplative prayer, like God, is no respecter of status or position and encounters souls where they are. The mystical-contemplative dimension of my paper is to see whether these two works in conversation would be able to address concerns I have about anti-black narratives in my present …

“We Felt Powerful And Rebellious”: Contested Spaces, Lesbian Identity, And The Evolution Of Separatism, Sarah Cooper

All Dissertations

Drawing on theoretical perspectives from lesbian studies, queer theory and studies and, feminist rhetorics while using rhetorical analysis, interviews, and archival research, this project traces the relationships lesbians have had to place, through case studies. To date, research on how space occupancy or land practices have contributed to the constitution of a contemporary lesbian identity in the United States lack scholarly attention. My following chapters ask: how has separatism historically and at present contributed to the constitution of lesbian identity? To answer, I turn to archival evidence of women’s lands in Southern Oregon, Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, and Olivia Travel. …

Seniors Seeking Housing, Health, And Climate Justice, An Oral History Of Hurricane Recovery In The Gulf Coast, Jessica April Ward

Dissertations (2016-Present)

On the Gulf Coast of Texas, a large disparity exists between the number of homes still in need of repair after Hurricane Harvey and the number of homes actually repaired by the City of Houston, Housing and Community Development, 6 years after the storm. This research was conducted through the lens of environmental justice, with attention to climate change impacts and the vulnerability of previously segregated neighborhoods over extended periods of time. The most vulnerable, seniors, were interviewed to collect their personal experiences post Hurricane Harvey to determine the true extent of home damage, how they recovered from the storm, …

A Case Study On Examining Systemic African American Poverty In Caddo Parish And Bossier Parish, Louisiana, Stephen Pinkney

Dissertations (2016-Present)

There are many states, counties, and cities in the United States of America where people do not have access to basic necessities such as food, housing, proper medical facilities, access to schools, and ready or no transportation, etc. The reason for this situation is due to the issue of poverty. Poverty is an unacceptably low-standard way of life that is a complex human phenomenon. It has multiple causes, manifestations, and dimensions. (Odhiambo, Omiti, Muthaka, 2005) Caddo Parish, Louisiana, is such a place that has high poverty among Black people. The population of African American people in Caddo Parish is larger …

Closing The Loop Of Food Systems: Analyzing Compost Within Community Bounds, Ellen A. Getter

Honors Theses

The aim of this thesis is to construct a philosophical and ecological argument that places great value on localized food systems in terms of waste. This composition develops the claim that building composting infrastructure on a community scale will curb the global climate crisis and enhance the interconnectedness humans have within themselves, each other, and the natural world. The first prong of this thesis entails a theoretical framework we must function under in order to implement such radical food revolutions in our communities informed by Buddhist principles. This proceeds an international case study of the composting infrastructure of Fort Albany …

Uncovering Testimonios Of Traditional Healing Practices Among Latinx College Students In El Nuevo Sur., Sarah Nuñez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Latinx college students in el Nuevo Sur face many barriers to their educational success. Latinx students in el Nuevo Sur live in a part of the country where few opportunities to embrace their cultures are present or centered in educational settings. Reclaiming and remembering their cultures within the higher education setting could act as a catalyst for their success and is the motivation for this dissertation. Through testimonios, photo/image-elicitation, and journal writing with ten participants, I listened to and witnessed the students’ stories. Through unfolding the students’ testimonios, I uncovered and supported students to rediscover healing practices as a tool …

A Healthier Community For Generations To Come: Creating Resilient And Equitable Development On Lower 9th Ward Corridors, Sarah Bechdel, Dov Block, Bailey Bullock, Ellis Combes, Laura Harris, Samuel Mercier, Maya Struhar

Planning and Urban Studies Reports and Presentations

The Healthier Community for Generations to Come report provides Sankofa Community Development Corporation with programmatic recommendations to assist in the revitalization of the Lower Ninth Ward (LNW). This report draws on extensive research in urban planning best practices to propose strategies that promote economic revitalization, housing sustainability, community health, and environmental resilience. The research was guided by an Urban Land Institute (ULI) Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) which engaged the LNW community to inform recommendations. Sustainability analysis, equity planning, resilience planning, market analysis, and GIS analysis methodologies were employed to create the report. The final report recommendations included a site SWOT, …

Serious Play: Campus Humor In Precarious Times, Kevin Howley

Communication & Theatre Faculty Publications

The article explores the use of campus humor as a crisis intervention approach in higher education as of 2023. Topics discussed include the production of campus humor as a subversive form of play within the corporatized university, and three case studies of humorous media that examine discrete but highly intertextual forms of mediated humor to address campus crises before and during the pandemic. Also noted are these studies' transmedia adaptation to the university in crisis.

Critiquing The Present And Imagining The Future: Diversity In Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Literature, Ericka Stone

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This project investigates the historic and contemporary representations of diversity in young adult dystopian literature. First, the functions of utopia and dystopia are examined, as each genre seeks to create change within society, whether it is by presenting the possibility of a more hopeful future, or by projecting the problems of the present into a terrifying vision of what might happen if changes are not made. By examining the elements of utopian and dystopian fiction and the way each genre conveys their themes, this project seeks to locate the significance of diversity and representation of all races, ethnicities, genders, and …

The Shamokin Reuse Warehouse: Strategic Recommendations For Organizational Sustainability, Riley Debaecke, Mia Hursh, Daniel Loughney, Mary Alexander, Georgia Lambrakis

Coal Region Field Station Student Projects

This document encompasses a strategic plan concerning the future structure, strategy, processes, and people that will be associated with the Shamokin Reuse Warehouse’s operations. This plan provides recommendations for transforming the 400 E Sunbury Street post office into a reuse warehouse and a multipurpose community center. It is intended to be reviewed by stakeholders in the Shamokin community, such as community leaders, local businesses, and residents. By involving these stakeholders in the review process, this document is a foundational step in devising their long-term plan. As this plan is subject to change over time, it can be tailored to meet …

Historic Downtown Streetscape Plan Price City, Utah, Patricia Beckert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The idea of a small-town Main Street has profound meaning within the American culture that has prevailed for the past two centuries. Historically, Main Street serves as the beating heart of a community, a place where economic, social, cultural, and civic activities are centered (Francaviglia, 1996; Main Street America, n.d.). Since the beginning of the 19th century, many factors have led to the decline of Main Streets, and despite a variety of efforts from different stakeholders, that decline has only intensified in recent decades (Isenberg, 2008; Orvell, 2014 Howard, 2015). In 1980, after a three-year project conducted by the National …